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NEWS/COMMENTARY JOURNAL

Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places
Mark Steyn | The Orange County Register | Sep. 16, 2007
...We should beware anyone who seeks to explain 9/11 by using the words "each other": They posit a grubby equivalence between the perpetrator and the victim – that the "failure to understand" derives from the culpability of both parties. The 9/11 killers were treated very well in the United States: They were ushered into the country on the high-speed visa express program the State Department felt was appropriate for young Saudi males...

...when you raise a generation in the great wobbling blancmange of Deval Patrick-style cultural relativism – nothing is any better or any worse than anything else; if people are "mean and nasty" to us, it's only because we didn't sing enough Barney the Dinosaur songs at them – in such a world a certain percentage of its youth will have a great gaping hole where their sense of identity should be. And into that hole you can pour something fierce and primal and implacable...
The Fate of Camelot
Ernest W. Lefever | The Washington Times | Aug. 28, 2007
...JFK was shot by a frustrated communist, Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone. Everyone agrees that Dallas was a profound shock to the American people, and to millions abroad who underestimated the strength of American democracy or the resilience of its people...

...After Kennedy's death, "liberals recast their understanding of reform from an instrument of progress to an instrument for punishment." Jimmy Carter's "Punitive Liberalism" was at odds with "the forward-looking optimism" of JFK. Finally, in 1980 the conservatives led by Ronald Reagan seized "the mantle of optimism and progress that had been abandoned by the liberals..."
Using Avoidance Manoeuvres
Lorrie Goldstein | Toronto Sun | Jul. 26, 2007
...Incensed by calls from Toronto Mayor David Miller and Ontario Attorney General Michael Bryant for a "handgun ban" in the wake of an outbreak of gun and gang violence last weekend, including the murder of an 11-year-old boy, Ron asked, "Are they dense? Are they stubborn? Do they have some kind of vested interest in not solving violent crime?" My answer is "no" to all three. I believe politicians propose simplistic solutions like "gun bans" because it's easier than telling people the truth -- that fighting gun crime is hard.

Calling for "banning handguns," particularly when you're asking a Conservative government in Ottawa to do it while you're a left-wing Toronto mayor or a Liberal provincial attorney general, is just an easy, partisan way to avoid responsibility and duck the issue. This is also true for politicians on the right, who talk only about passing tougher laws against gun crime...
Alarmist global warming claims melt under scientific scrutiny
James M. Taylor | Chicago Sun-Times | Jun. 30, 2007
...Many of the assertions Gore makes in his movie, ''An Inconvenient Truth,'' have been refuted by science, both before and after he made them. Gore can show sincerity in his plea for scientific honesty by publicly acknowledging where science has rebutted his claims...

For example, Gore claims that Himalayan glaciers are shrinking and global warming is to blame. Yet the September 2006 issue of the American Meteorological Society's Journal of Climate reported, "Glaciers are growing in the Himalayan Mountains, confounding global warming alarmists who recently claimed the glaciers were shrinking and that global warming was to blame."
'Have sex, do drugs,' speaker tells students
Bob Unruh | WorldNet Daily | May 21, 2007
"Why I am going to take that position is because you are going to do it anyway," he continued. "I think as a psychologist and health educator, it is more important to educate you in a direction that you might actually stick to. So, I am going to stay mostly on with the sex side because that is the area I know more about. I want to encourage you to all have healthy, sexual behavior."

...WND also has reported on similar assemblies that have been used by schools to promote homosexuality, including one where parents were banned from the event, and a second where WND reported school officials ordered their 14-year-old freshman class into a "gay" indoctrination seminar after having them sign a confidentiality agreement promising not to tell their parents...
New evidence against Van Anraat
Goran Baba Ali and Sebastiaan Gottlieb | Radio Netherlands | Apr. 4, 2007
...In December last year, Frans van Anraat was sentenced to 15 years in jail. The court in The Hague found him guilty of supplying materials for chemical weapons to the Saddam Hussein regime in the 1980s. He was acquitted of complicity in genocide because he reportedly did not know that Saddam Hussein intended to use poison gas on the Iraqi population...

On 7 May 1990, Frans van Anraat wrote a letter to former dictator Saddam Hussein in which he requested Iraqi nationality. "Dear Mr President," he wrote, I first came to your country in 1977 and lived in Baghdad for three years. I have come to love your people and your country, which I now consider my second country. I am proud of what I did for this country." According to a letter from the Iraqi secret service to the head of the military industry dated 8 January 1992 (click here for translation), what Frans van Anraat did for Iraq was: "supply banned and difficult to obtain chemical substances, at great risk to himself. And at reasonable prices compared to earlier quotes from other companies."
Missing Link?
Staff Editorial | Investor's Business Daily | Mar. 15, 2007
...War critics argue that Saddam Hussein had little to do with terrorism, and nothing to do with al-Qaida. Since there was no Iraq-al-Qaida link, they say, the U.S. should never have invaded to get rid of Hussein, no matter how evil he was. But something interesting has come out of the interrogations of the lead al-Qaida suspects at Guantanamo.

In particular, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed confirmed what was suspected all along: He was the driving force and chief planner behind 15 years of al-Qaida terrorism — nearly 30 attacks and plots in all. That includes 9/11, the murder of journalist Daniel Pearl and, much earlier, the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.

If so, it further cements the evidence that Iraq was, at minimum, a willing partner of al-Qaida's in the decadelong burst of terrorism that culminated in 9/11...
Abusing Intelligence
Michael Tanji | The the Weekly Standard | Feb. 16, 2007
...Intelligence is a national security decision-making tool, not a ball to be taken out and kicked about when cheap political points need to be scored. Yet now that the Department of Defense Inspector General's Office has released its report on the intelligence-related activities of the Pentagon's Office of Special Plans, that is exactly what is going on.

Leaks of secret intelligence documents are curious affairs. The general public rarely gets to see the full text of intelligence assessments because, as prolific as they can be, leakers gain no benefit from revealing the full picture. Doing so would reveal, as the recent key judgments of the national intelligence estimate on Iraq showed, that there is often a ray of light amongst all the doom and gloom....
Is Hollywood too timid for the war on terror?
Andrew Klavan | The Los Angeles Times | Jan. 26, 2007
...The outcome of our battle against the demographic, political and military upsurge of a hateful theology and its oppressive political vision will determine the fate of freedom in this century.

Television — more populist, hungrier for content and less dependent on foreign audiences — reflects this fact with shows such as "24" and "The Unit." But at the movies, all we're getting is home-front angst and the occasional "Syriana," in which "moderate" Islam is thwarted by evil American interests. But the notion that this war is about our moral failings is comfort fantasy, pure and simple. It soothes us with the false idea that, if we but mend ourselves, the scary people will leave us alone...
Airport Security and Racial Profiling
Walter E. Williams | Capitalism Magazine | Dec. 20, 2006
...It is clear, whether we like it or not, or want to say it or not, that there is a strong correlation between terrorist acts and being a Muslim, and being black and high rates of crime. That means if one is trying to deter terrorism and in some cases capture a criminal, he would expend greater investigatory resources on Muslims and blacks. A law-abiding Muslim who's given extra airport screening or a black who's stopped by the police is perfectly justified in being angry, but with whom should he be angry? I think a Muslim should be angry with those who've made terrorism and Muslim synonymous and blacks angry with those who've made blacks and crime synonymous. The latter is my response to the insulting sounds of car doors locking sometimes when I'm crossing a street in downtown Washington, D.C., or when taxi drivers pass me by...
Iran Offers to Share Experience and Achievements With Hamas
Julie Stahl | CNSNews.com | Oct 13, 2006
...Damascus-based Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal meets regularly with Ahmadinejad and has pledged his support to the Iranian leader in the event that Iran is attacked by the West.
...Ahmadinejad offered to transfer Iranian "experience and achievements" to Hamas. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard, Iran's elite commando unit, was responsible for training Hizballah in Lebanon...
[Palestinian Interior Minister Said] Sayam is quoted as saying that the victory of one Islamic state is the victory of all Muslims and they should take pride in the victory of Hizballah, Hamas and the "remarkable success of Iran in various domains."
Ted Turner: Give Muslim Extremists What They Want to Stop Terrorism
Brad Wilmouth | News Busters | Sept 30, 2006
..."you don't win people over by bombing them, you win them over by being friends with them," and soon recommended giving Muslim extremists what they want as a solution to terrorism. Turner, who in 2002 claimed that Israelis were guilty of "terrorism" against the Palestinians, on Friday's show advocated "being more even-handed in our dealing with the Palestinians and the Israelis," negotiating peace in the Middle East "so we can stop at some point furnishing military aid to Israel," and "pulling our military forces out of the Middle East." Turner labelled these moves as "things that they've asked of us" and "things that the Muslim extremists and a lot of other Muslims, too, would like to see us do..."
Media Blame Bush for Clinton Legacy
Roger Aronoff | Accuracy In Media | Aug 15, 2006
...Clinton bombed Iraq for several days in December of 1998 with no Congressional or United Nations approval...
...waged war against Serbia in violation of the War Powers Act, without the approval of Congress or the U.N., using NATO as an offensive rather than defensive force. That violated the NATO treaty. Today, because of the Clinton policy, a Muslim state is being constructed in the Serbian province of Kosovo...
...was snookered by the North Korean communists, after providing them with massive amounts of aid, while they cheated on their promise to abandon their nuclear weapons program...
...wasted eight years with the so-called Oslo process, during which Israel and the Palestinians were supposed to make peace, and he entertained Yasser Arafat repeatedly at the White House. In the end, Israel was under attack again and the region was ablaze in a second intifada. That is the situation that the Bush Administration inherited.
Looking for trouble, the thugs find it
Wesley Pruden | The Washington Times | July 14, 2006
...Daniel Ayalon, the Israeli ambassador to Washington, offered a warning to Iran in blunt, forceful language yesterday at a session with reporters at the National Press Club: "They are playing with fire, and will bear the consequences" [if kidnapped soldiers end up in Iran or Syria].This is not the usual diplo-speak, but a warning in language that thugs and primitives better understand...

...Most of the rest of the world is, as usual, either trying to make Israel the villain, or trying to sleep. The United Nations Security Council, ever on the scout for ways to equivocate in the face of moral challenge, would have adopted a resolution condemning Israel yesterday but for a veto by the United States. Four other nations, displaying the irresolution that is the courage of cowards, abstained. Israel's neighbors, who have the most to lose if the radicalized "religion of peace" prevails in the Middle East, displayed their usual manliness...
The Real Iraq
Amir Taheri | Commentary | Jun. 6, 2006
...there are those in the media and the think tanks who wish the Iraq enterprise to end in tragedy, as a just comeuppance for George W. Bush. Others, prompted by noble sentiment, so abhor the idea of war that they would banish it from human discourse before admitting that, in some circumstances, military power can be used in support of a good cause...

...a vast network of independent media has emerged in Iraq, including over 100 privately-owned newspapers and magazines and more than two dozen radio and television stations. To anyone familiar with the state of the media in the Arab world, it is a truism that Iraq today is the place where freedom of expression is most effectively exercised...
US Concerned About China's Military Buildup
Al Pessin | VOA News | May 23, 2006
...Assistant Secretary of Defense Peter Rodman says China appears to be preparing to project its military power beyond its immediate surroundings. "There are indications that they are thinking more broadly and at the very beginnings, perhaps, of developing power projection for other contingencies other than Taiwan," he said.

The report says such contingencies could involve conflicts over territory or resources. Last year's report on China came to a similar conclusion. But this year, the report adds that U.S. analysts have been 'surprised' by 'the pace and scope' of the modernization of China's strategic forces. And Rodman says Chinese officials are also discussing possible revisions in their defense doctrines, including their pledge not to be the first to use nuclear weapons in any conflict.
Darfur a Quagmire to Avoid
Peter Wortihington | Toronto Sun | May 9, 2006
...Although related to the Mahdi of the siege of Gen. Charles "Chinese" Gordon in 1884, Prime Minister Mahdi seemed moderate and unhappy about the imposition of sharia law (amputations, public floggings and stoning deaths for crimes) that provoked the rebellion in the south. No international objections were forthcoming.

...It's foolhardy to send troops there. Waste money, if you like, by supplying equipment for African peacekeepers but don't involve our troops. Sudan is a quagmire best left for African interlopers to solve. Either that or declare war on the Khartoum government and back the rebels of the south.
Protests Provide Boost to Democrats
Charles Hurt | The Washington Times | Apr 11, 2006
... "They say you should report to deport," Mr. Kennedy said of conservatives and a growing number of union-backed liberals who oppose granting citizenship to illegals. "I say report to become American citizens." These rallies also have turned into Democratic recruitment centers for reaching new voters...

...Yesterday, Mr. Tancredo said the protests reveal how powerful illegal aliens have become in the U.S."Today's rallies show how entrenched the illegal alien lobby has become over the last several years," he said. "The iron triangle of illegal employers, foreign governments and groups like La Raza puts tremendous pressure on our elected officials to violate the desires of law-abiding Americans and to grant amnesty..."
Lessons from Viet Nam: Don't Cut and Run!
Michael W. Cotter | American Diplomacy | Mar 20, 2006
...Although Vietnam and Iraq are different wars, in different times and being fought for different reasons, there are parallels between them. Whatever one's views of how and why we fought and are fighting them, the manner of our departure from Vietnam and the scars it left both on Americans who served there and the Vietnamese should provide a stern warning as we try to disengage in Iraq. Whether the war in Iraq is "winnable," whatever that word means, the Vietnam experience should tell us that a precipitate withdrawal is almost certain to have very serious consequences....
Don't mention Africa
Evelyn Gordon | The Jerusalem Post | Mar 8, 2006
...UNHCR instituted the cut because feeding 72,000 refugees 2,207 calories a day for one year costs $8.5 million - but as of January 1, the agency had yet to receive a penny in donations for 2006. Not knowing when more money might be forthcoming, it was trying to make leftover supplies from 2005 last as long as possible. In mid-February, the United States, Britain and Germany finally pledged a collective $2.3m., but it is not known when that money will arrive - or where the other $6.2m. will be found.

YET WEALTHY countries are clearly not short of disposable cash: Just three days after the Times report appeared, the European Union managed to scrounge up 120 million euros (about $143m.) in emergency aid for a more deserving cause: the Palestinian Authority...
BLOG 'DISCUSSION'

Talks with Iran
...The Mullahs love such talks. They have ruled in their Islamic courts that lying to the Infidel is not only permitted, but a duty if it is deemed to serve their Cause. This in effect means that their word is worth nothing. Thus, we have a version of unilateral negotiations that are all too familiar with the Islamists, the Chinese and the North Koreans....

N Korea Nuking Scenario
...An appeasing Democrat is President. Kim or one of his successors nukes an ally or even an American city. The omniscient Illuminati of Western society [the entertainment industry] will howl that we must not precipitate a nuclear holocaust over a few unfortunate broken eggs that were, after all, lobbed because of our discriminatory policies toward an equally valid alternate lifestyle -- one-party dictatorship...

Religion vs Science
...The debates that have arisen here and elsewhere that assume that there is a natural conflict between science/ religion, faith/knowledge are pointless. Those who have made their life’s work to study the physical world and to discover the laws that govern typically express awe at the magnificence of the universe and a conviction that the more we find out, the more we learn how little we know of the Greater Whole... ...we are not equipped to have more than a small hint of the Big Picture and must therefore trust that there is something larger than us running the show.

Limits on Teachers, Not Kids
...It's not that children are getting worse -- they are just not being given any limits while the limits imposed upon the adults who must manage them grow ever tighter. Recall in that video that the vice-principal was not allowed to restrain her, only block the punches and say "no, stop that."

At least when I drove a cab I was allowed to fight back -- and did upon occassion. No one in their right mind would consider becoming a school teacher today....

Who is Pro-War? Not Me!
...the only people who are for 'the war' are those who are perpetuating bloodshed in order to install another terrorist-friendly dictatorship to replace the previous one.

The coalition -- from the troops to the commanders to the civilian l eadership -- are NOT pro-war. Neither are the vast majority of the Iraqi people. They are doing their damndest to end the violence so that we can bring our troops home, give the Iraqis back their country and concentrate our resources upon rebuilding and fostering democracy...

Iran: Pre-emptive Strike Risks
...The only hope in turning back this threat lies in the Iranian people themselves.

Therefore, concerted effort must be taken to counter-revolutionize Iran on the diplomatic/economic fronts. Any and all avenues must be pursued in encouraging the Iranian people to continue to resist their masters. If opportunities for facilitating a counter-insurgency, they must be taken as well...

Capitalism vs. Socialism
...Given that people vary in terms of discipline, intelligence, opportunity , etc., the only way to eliminate or reduce 'disparities' is to eliminate wealth. Poverty can be shared, wealth cannot. It IS possible to construct a society wherein people are equally poor. It is NOT possible to have one with everyone equally rich....

Iraq Coalition Shrinking
...You have to read the story further down to understand that the force reduction is consequent to Iraqis increasingly assuming roles once performed by foreign forces. But the first impression is that the allies are precipitously abandoning the Iraqis.

Leave it to the MSM to try and portray clear evidence that the original objective [remove Saddam, foster democracy, rebuild, pacify] is being met as something negative.

The headline should read: 'Allied Forces Come Home as Iraqis Phase In'...

More Outrage over Cartoons
... European embassies burn throughout a region wherein religion, government and the press are a unified whole that is not subject to a popular mandate. Such behavior is making cartoons that once appeared silly and exaggerated to now seem to be gross understatements of the true nature of a political-theological mindset that cannot abide a syllable of dissent without wanton destruction and bloodshed.

While many in the West apologize for suicide bombers and say that 'one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter,' those who have no doubts as to their side's superiority are calling for no such compromise or understanding.

They see surrendering our freedom in the face of violence as signs of weakness. Thus it will engender more...

Socialism Offers Hope?
Government ownership of the means of production [which ultimately is each and every human being -- i.e. slavery] offers no hope to anyone, except the would-be masters. It certainly does not alleviate poverty. The most it can do is reduce or eliminate wealth, not create it. Such is the nature of the egalitarianism socialists advocate.

Wealth can only grow in freedom...

Global Warming Motivations
...there is some question as to the amount of human influence here. The fact is, the Earth has experienced radical climate changes long before Lucy trod in Olduvai. But there is a significant cadre who hold that homo sapiens is the greatest vermin on the planet -- and that the free market is our Greatest Sin.

US Troop Reduction=Islam Victory?
This can be seen as a desperate man trying to make victory from what is at best stalemate. His 'forces' still hold no territory and has only succeeded in continuing bloodshed via sneak attacks upon civilians Iraqi officials and Coalition forces.

It can also be seen as an indication of how withdrawing before the bloodshed is stopped will be seen in the region. Leaving the violent elements intact [who are determined to thwart peacefully chosen representative government in favor of another forcibly installed terrorist-friendly regime to replace the previous one] will be viewed by friend and foe alike as weakness to be exploited further.

Honor Killings: Implications
"...A labourer slit throats of his four daughters in Pakistan's eastern Punjab province when his eldest daughter married of her own choice..." Patriarchal societies are not good for the males either, because half of the population's potential is stifled. In studies I have seen on this subject, there is a strong correlation between economic, social and political development and the empowerment of women. Those that tend to treat women like livestock tend to be the most backward.

All cultures are not equally valid. Some practices are universally abhorrent and should be abolished for the sake of all.

Germany Releases Murderer
...the German government considered then and now our means of punisment for such an offender to be REVENGE and medieval, so they decided that their courts and punishments were more 'civilized' than ours, even though they had no business trying someone for a crime that was not committed on German soil and was perpetrated upon an American.

What I cannot forgive is that if given the chance, they unabashedly would do the same. Given that fact, we must not rule out seizing those who harm us wherever they are if there is chance that they will be denied justice in the hands of our putative allies.

Iran: Crackdown and Belligerance
...Ever the dog of the mullahs, he is leading an internal social/political crackdown, harkening back to a time before the majority of the young population was born. For their part, Iran's polity has been resisting the oppression openly and furtively. As has been the case with other unpopular dictatorships, the government is hoping to divert internal attention by provoking a military conflict from the outside -- preferably with Israel and/or the US.

Abortion & the Goddess
...Unfortunately in the US, the issue was settled by a majority decision in a Court 9 people [not subject to a popular mandate] with the idea that the debate will be closed. That is wrong. For my part, I am against abortion. It is not a religious issue to me, just as with euthanasia, it is a matter of human rights.

I think until there is a consensus on abortion, it should be legal in places where the majority of the people think that it should be legal and illegal in places where the community thinks that it should be illegal.

Right of Return for New Orleans?
...They want to have the local government that actually let them down preserved and subsidized by everyone else in the country. Furthermore, they want the victim mentality that made them more vulnerable to be kept intact also. Under no circumstances do they want to consider reviewing their own responsibilities in how their reaction may have made a difficult challenge from Nature into a hideous, embarrasing display of stupidity and self-indulgence.

Unthanksgiving Day
...When we wring our hands about how terrible it was what the Europeans did to the Amerindians, we must remember what their mindset was in those days. They saw their tech advantage as proof of being Divinely Chosen to supplant all others and 'save' them from their 'obvious' backwardness...the natives were happily killing, raping and ethnically cleansing each other to the utmost of their technological capability before the White Devil showed up. They absolutely would have done the same to us in spades if the shoe were on the other foot.

Minimum Wage Implications
...The fatal flaw with these static analyses is the assumption that people are not going to change their behavior in response to any government intervention into the economy. As others have already pointed out, artificially raising wages that the market has determined is not worth the government set wage and you have inflation. Another fundamental aspect of an artificial price floor is that the commodity then is in surplus. Thus, those whose wages are only worth $4.00/hr are laid off/never hired in favor of those whose time is worth the minimum wage.
*

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